Shibumi - International Reiki Association

Scientific research team updates

2009-10-20T09:51:58+10:00

Wow, here it is, half-way through October. So what is the science team up to these days?

We’ve been meeting each month (more or less) since we first convened in April of this year (2009).

Each member of the team has submitted at least one idea for a research project, something we’d really love to learn about Reiki. Each of us has been “work-shopping” her own project through a series of homework assignments between the meetings. During our meetings, we have productive discussions over the previous month’s assignment, and decide on the next steps.

We’ll keep working in this way, until one project stands out as the most likely candidate for our first “real” project.

In the meantime, all the other work will go to a portfolio of potential research projects that we can launch in the future.

It’s really exciting, and our hour-long meetings are very productive and fun - although scheduling is very interesting with members in four different time zones around the globe. No one seems to mind the odd times, though. The team is open-minded and encouraging toward all participants. With Marianne’s guidance, we’re learning a lot about what is realistic to undertake, and how to think about constructing a research project. Add in the creativity and curiosity of the entire team, and we have several potential projects taking shape already, with more ideas flowing all the time.

Stay tuned for further developments!

Volunteers

2009-07-15T04:31:00+10:00

Hello All,

Can you read Japanese Kanji?

The Shibumi Historical Research Team is looking for a volunteer who would like to help us out. We need someone who can read text written in Japanese Kanji and translate it into English for us.

The job will not be too time consuming and it should be interesting for a practitioner of Japanese Reiki as the documents will all be related to this in some way.

We are able to be very flexible with how this will work; any help with the production of accurate translations will be welcome. However, it’s also possible that this could turn into an ongoing job for someone who would enjoy this, as we are currently working on a long term research project.

If you are interested, please get in touch with me by email at: rebecca at shibumireiki dot org .

Love
Rebecca

Team Members Update

2009-07-09T19:29:09+10:00

The Shibumi Scientific Research Team has changed a little since it first began - here’s a little update…

Juri Christensen decided that he couldn’t commit himself to it and we sincerely thank him for the time that he did commit to it! It was lovely getting to know him a little better in our teleconference and emails. We still value any feedback you have Juri.

We also have a new member, Marianne Huebner PhD. Marianne works at the Mayo Clinic and we think she is going to be an amazing addition to the team. We look forward to continuing this journey with her.

The Historical Reiki Research Team

2009-05-19T14:00:49+10:00

The Historical Reiki Research Team has been created and is busily starting with writing research papers. Wow!
It is headed by Rebecca Holten.
We’ll let you know how we progress.

Reiki Versus Rest for Treating Cancer-Related Fatigue

2009-04-12T15:35:27+10:00

Here is another piece of recent research
“Pilot Crossover Trial of Reiki Versus Rest for Treating Cancer-Related Fatigue” it is attached as a pdf.

It is interesting research. As it is a pilot its conclusion states that it would like to include “sham” Reiki in future research. This for me is an issue and the failings of this method are also discussed in the pages Trish listed from “Your Reiki Treatment”.

Therefore, there must be alternative methods of comparison to “prove” that Reiki “works” or are there simply different ways of looking at this subject?

(attachment coming soon slight server hiccup )

Surprise, surprise - spiritual practice is good for you…

2009-04-28T10:11:56+10:00

Here’s a new book…

“In How God Changes Your Brain, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman cite ‘breakthrough findings’ that spiritual practice, whether secular or religious, is good for body and brain—especially the brain.

“Meditation and prayer—be it about God, or evolution, or peace, or the Big Bang—strengthen important circuits in your brain, making you more socially aware and alert while reducing anxiety, depression, and neurological stress.”

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/rdbook/1248/rd10q:_thinking_about_god_makes_your_brain_bigger

First official meeting

2009-04-11T11:54:55+10:00

The research group will have their first official meeting by telephone conference on Saturday, 18 April 09.

We have two time zones from the EU represented, two time zones from the US, and one time zone from Australia.

A big thanks to all who are contributing time and energy to this work!

Wiliam Lee Rand articel concerning the James Oschmann studies

2009-04-19T01:46:54+10:00

Hi,

Please see http://www.reiki.org/Download/OschmanReprint2.pdf for the short articel.

Best regards, Juri

Scientific method- definition

2009-04-15T02:07:06+10:00

Here’s a pretty basic definition of how science looks at the world, as defined by Rochester University.
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Recognizing that personal and cultural beliefs influence both our perceptions and our interpretations of natural phenomena, we aim through the use of standard procedures and criteria to minimize those influences when developing a theory. As a famous scientist once said, “Smart people (like smart lawyers) can come up with very good explanations for mistaken points of view.” In summary, the scientific method attempts to minimize the influence of bias or prejudice in the experimenter when testing an hypothesis or a theory.

The scientific method has four steps
1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.

2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation.

3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations.

4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.

If the experiments bear out the hypothesis it may come to be regarded as a theory or law of nature (more on the concepts of hypothesis, model, theory and law below). If the experiments do not bear out the hypothesis, it must be rejected or modified. What is key in the description of the scientific method just given is the predictive power (the ability to get more out of the theory than you put in; see Barrow, 1991) of the hypothesis or theory, as tested by experiment. It is often said in science that theories can never be proved, only disproved. There is always the possibility that a new observation or a new experiment will conflict with a long-standing theory.

The most fundamental error is to mistake the hypothesis for an explanation of a phenomenon, without performing experimental tests. Sometimes “common sense” and “logic” tempt us into believing that no test is needed. There are numerous examples of this, dating from the Greek philosophers to the present day.

Another common mistake is to ignore or rule out data which do not support the hypothesis. Ideally, the experimenter is open to the possibility that the hypothesis is correct or incorrect. Sometimes, however, a scientist may have a strong belief that the hypothesis is true (or false), or feels internal or external pressure to get a specific result. In that case, there may be a psychological tendency to find “something wrong”, such as systematic effects, with data which do not support the scientist’s expectations, while data which do agree with those expectations may not be checked as carefully. The lesson is that all data must be handled in the same way.

Are there circumstances in which the Scientific Method is not applicable?
The scientific method works best in situations where one can isolate the phenomenon of interest, by eliminating or accounting for extraneous factors, and where one can repeatedly test the system under study after making limited, controlled changes in it.

There are, of course, circumstances when one cannot isolate the phenomena or when one cannot repeat the measurement over and over again. In such cases the results may depend in part on the history of a situation. This often occurs in social interactions between people. For example, when a lawyer makes arguments in front of a jury in court, she or he cannot try other approaches by repeating the trial over and over again in front of the same jury. In a new trial, the jury composition will be different. Even the same jury hearing a new set of arguments cannot be expected to forget what they heard before.

References
1. Wilson, E. Bright. An Introduction to Scientific Research (McGraw-Hill, 1952).

2. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962).

3. Barrow, John. Theories of Everything (Oxford Univ. Press, 1991).